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The Underground Book – Explore the Elements of a Book Cover that Sells



As you may or may not have known, I am currently writing a special Underground e-book for the blog which will be released in 2010 for sure. My goal is to have it released and launched before June, and I believe it can happen. The book is 90% done on my end.




The Underground Book – Book Cover Art Brainstorming



At the time of this writing, I have to review the conclusion chapter, and then proofread the earlier chapters. The book is approximately 66 pages long in its current state, and I expect it to get longer once Voltaire finishes his special chapter.


Anyway, I was planning to save this article for later this month, but after talking to a user on Skype tonight and telling him about the premise of the book, he got excited about it. This in turn got me excited, and here I am writing this article to get the rest of you excited because I got a special thing going on here that will be more fun if I can pull as many of you as I can into the book writing process.


With that said, I need some help brainstorming ideas. My intention is if I get enough of us collaborating, as a team effort we can create a badass title. The cover art will have to come later. For now, I just want to brainstorm book titles. If we get a really good title out, then expect me to reward the contributor(s) with a very special gift. *hush hush*


To summarize what the book about in a few sentences is hard for me to do, because it would not be giving the book the justice it deserves. However, I will try my best to paint a picture for you guys to understand what the book is about and why I wrote it.


If I gave the book to your Mom, the goal is after she finishes reading it she will know exactly why her kids behave the way they do. The son has an iPod and its already full after one day? How is that possible? This book talks about torrents in general, and other tactics that educates the common user about these alternative methods of obtaining things online. It is risky business, and the book talks about this. Maybe the Mom will hit an inner revelation and decides that spending money for music is a waste and that she herself will go explore downloading music and throw morals out the window. There is much more to the book than this, but this is a slight tunnel into what the book is about.


It really is a mix of both. Those who follow the blog/youtube will appreciate the book. However, the way I see it, a lot of average Joes found this blog and then over the course of time turned themselves into a smarter average Joe.


The last 4 words of the real subtitle knock it out of the park: from Profits to People. They tell the reader what the book is about, targeting the right audience by grabbing people who are interested in that idea.


Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, including explicit drug use, sexuality, and violence. They were most popular in the United States in the late 1960s and 1970s, and in the United Kingdom in the 1970s.


Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, Barbara "Willy" Mendes, Trina Robbins and numerous other cartoonists created underground titles that were popular with readers within the counterculture scene. Punk had its own comic artists like Gary Panter. Long after their heyday, underground comix gained prominence with films and television shows influenced by the movement and with mainstream comic books, but their legacy is most obvious with alternative comics.


The United States underground comics scene emerged in the 1960s, focusing on subjects dear to the counterculture: recreational drug use, politics, rock music, and free love. The underground comix scene had its strongest success in the United States between 1968 and 1975,[1] with titles initially distributed primarily though head shops.[2] Underground comix often featured covers intended to appeal to the drug culture, and imitated LSD-inspired posters to increase sales.[1]


Between the late 1920s and late 1940s, anonymous underground artists produced counterfeit pornographic comic books featuring unauthorized depictions of popular comic strip characters engaging in sexual activities. Often referred to as Tijuana bibles, these books are often considered the predecessors of the underground comix scene.[3][4]


Mainstream publications such as Playboy and National Lampoon began to publish comics and art similar to that of underground comix.[1] The underground movement also prompted older professional comic book artists to try their hand in the alternate press. Wally Wood published witzend in 1966, soon passing the title on to artist-editor Bill Pearson. In 1969, Wood created Heroes, Inc. Presents Cannon, intended for distribution to armed forces bases. Steve Ditko gave full vent to his Ayn Rand-inspired philosophy in Mr. A and Avenging World (1973). In 1975, Flo Steinberg, Stan Lee's former secretary at Marvel Comics, published Big Apple Comix, featuring underground work by ostensibly "mainstream" artists she knew from Marvel.


By the mid-1970s, independent publishers began to release book-length collections of underground comics. Quick Fox/Links Books released two important collections, The Apex Treasury of Underground Comics, published in 1974, and The Best of Bijou Funnies, released in 1975. The Apex Treasury featured work by Crumb, Deitch, Griffith, Spain, Shelton, Spiegelman, Lynch, Shary Flenniken, Justin Green, Bobby London, and Willy Murphy;[21] while the Bijou Funnies book highlighted comics by Lynch, Green, Crumb, Shelton, Spiegelman, Deitch, Skip Williamson, Jay Kinney, Evert Geradts, Rory Hayes, Dan Clyne, and Jim Osborne.[22] Similarly, and around this time, the publishing cooperative And/Or Press published The Young Lust Reader (1974), a "best-of" collection from Griffith and Kinney's Young Lust anthology, and Dave Sheridan and Fred Schrier's The Overland Vegetable Stagecoach presents Mindwarp: An Anthology (1975). And/Or Press later published the first paperback collections of Griffith's Zippy the Pinhead comics.


In the late 1970s, Marvel and DC Comics agreed to sell their comics on a no-return basis with large discounts to comic book retailers; this led to later deals that helped underground publishers.[2] During this period, underground titles focusing on feminist and Gay Liberation themes began to appear, as well as comics associated with the environmental movement.[1] Anarchy Comics focused on left-wing politics, while Barney Steel's Armageddon focused on anarcho-capitalism.[25] British underground cartoonists also created political titles, but they did not sell as well as American political comics.[1]


Artists influenced by the underground comix scene, who were unable to get work published by better-known underground publications, began self-publishing their own small press, photocopied comic books, known as minicomics.[26] The punk subculture began to influence underground comix.[27]


Hassle Free Press was founded in London in 1975 by Tony and Carol Bennett as a publisher and distributor of underground books and comics. Now known as Knockabout Comics, the company has a long-standing relationship with underground comix pioneers Gilbert Shelton and Robert Crumb, as well as British creators like Hunt Emerson and Bryan Talbot. Knockabout has frequently suffered from prosecutions from U.K. customs, who have seized work by creators such as Crumb and Melinda Gebbie, claiming it to be obscene.[33][34]


Fiction differs from nonfiction in that titles should rarely get straight to the point. They instead should be mysterious and thought provoking, inducing curiosity. Fiction titles should lead a reader to pick up your book, not because they need a solution to a problem or information on a matter, but because they are curious.


There are hundreds of examples. Simply look at your favorite book and ask yourself why that title sounds interesting. Now, think of how the author might have come up with that. Use that same technique.


Am new to writing and this book is long overdue. and Am writing a book about my life, my struggles, my pain, my loss, my victory, where I am at present and what ot took. It is basically about rising from the ashes, irrespective of. I want a book to enpower, motivate, mentor, and encourage people especially targeted at women folk and anyone having a hard time, facing difficult times and cant really see light at the end of the tunnel. I dont want use obvious names. Any suggestions? Anyone?


Hi, I am thinking of writing a book on parenting on substance abuse and my target group should be the youths. Please is it possible to help me with a nice short and catchy title of the book. I would be glad you did. Thank you


Wow those are some good titles there! Thanks for the article Fox! These are some of the hardest points, though, to a story! Title can make or break your book XD. I find that making titles comes easy to me though. And yes a title can generate a whole story just from it.


I am working on a book with a tittle SLEEPINESS MY ENEMY. This is a motivational book which i would like to recommend it to students and to every worker because sleepiness has hindered many students a comfortable study.Please i need help, i want to know if the book can make sense


Looking for a powerful title for an exceptional book for the carer of someone with Alzheimers disease. Its very detailed practical and helpful advice. A reader will get to see the sufferer from a new perspective and understand his/her actions and therefore react appropriately. Much info also on where to get help etc. Its a guide, or companion but trying to go beyond the common A guide or companion for the caregiver. Thank you.


Use think-pair-share to deepen discussions about specific characters in books the class is reading together. For example, if the class is reading The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson, try think-pair-share to respond to questions such as, "Would you be able to be friends with Gilly? Why or why not?" 2ff7e9595c


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